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Security report for acupuncturecollege.org.uk

College of Integrated Chinese Medicine · Education · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

The College of Integrated Chinese Medicine (CICM) is a well-established educational institution in the UK specializing in acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine training. With over 25 years of experience and more than 1500 graduates, CICM offers a BSc (Hons) degree and various postgraduate courses, supported by clinical teaching and practitioner clinics. The website reflects a professional and comprehensive educational service targeting prospective students and patients seeking acupuncture treatment. Technically, the site uses common web technologies such as jQuery, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and MailChimp for marketing and analytics. The site is mobile-optimized with good navigation and content quality. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and cookie consent implemented, though explicit security headers are missing. WHOIS data is unavailable due to domain naming rules violation, which slightly impacts trust but the website content and external partnerships support legitimacy. Overall, the site is credible, secure, and compliant with privacy regulations.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

3 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

  3. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching acupuncturecollege.org.uk

This scan found 24 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
62
Security headers
55
Email security
60
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
68

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

CICM holds a strong market position as the largest acupuncture college in the UK, validated by recognized accreditation bodies and university partnerships. Its business model focuses on education and clinical services, generating revenue through degree courses, postgraduate training, CPD events, and clinic appointments. The target audience includes healthcare students, professionals, and patients. The institution maintains active social media presence and partnerships with academic and accreditation organizations, enhancing its reputation and reach. The website content and structure support effective student engagement and lead generation. Growth indicators include upcoming course dates and open days. The business ecosystem includes collaborations with universities and accreditation boards, reinforcing credibility.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security posture with HTTPS enabled and cookie consent mechanisms in place, indicating compliance with GDPR. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), X-Frame-Options, and HSTS reduces the overall security score. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. Third-party scripts from Facebook and MailChimp are used, which require ongoing monitoring for security risks. Incident response and security policy information are not explicitly provided, suggesting room for improvement in transparency and preparedness. The lack of a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file is noted. Overall, the site is secure but could enhance defenses and compliance documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Implement standard security headers including CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen browser security.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response plan accessible on the website to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Add a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance with WCAG standards and user experience for all visitors.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
College of Integrated Chinese Medicine
Description
The College of Integrated Chinese Medicine offers a BSc Hons degree in acupuncture, teaching an integrated approach of five element acupuncture & TCM. CICM also offers postgraduate courses in Paediatrics, Gynaecology, Fertility & Obstetrics and Tuina.
Key services
BSc (Hons) acupuncture degree, Postgraduate acupuncture courses, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) events, Teaching and practitioner clinics
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, MailChimp, FlexSlider
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent banner implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel
Marketing tools
MailChimp
Transparency
good

Site quality

Design
good
User experience
good
Content relevance
good
Navigation
good
Professionalism
good
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and navigation
  2. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected
  3. Comprehensive cookie consent and privacy policy present
  4. WHOIS data unavailable due to domain naming rules violation
  5. Strong educational and healthcare focus with clear contact info
  6. Use of multiple third-party marketing and analytics tools
  7. No visible security headers detected in HTML content
  8. Good social media integration and external partnerships
Technical notes

Notes

The website employs a traditional web stack with jQuery and several third-party integrations such as Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and MailChimp for marketing and analytics. The use of FlexSlider provides interactive UI elements. The site is mobile responsive and has good SEO metadata including Open Graph tags. No modern CMS or framework is explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or legacy platform. Performance is moderate with deferred script loading and CDN usage for some assets. Accessibility is basic but could be improved. The absence of explicit security headers and incomplete WHOIS data represent technical risks. Hosting provider details are not discernible from the content. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports the business needs but could benefit from modernization and enhanced security controls.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

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